Category: GHGs, including methane

Methane gas is 80 times more potent as a greenhouse gas, and it leaks into the air during all stages of the fracking life cycle. I leaks everywhere – during digging, during storage, and when being transmitted to its ultimate location for burning.

Report: Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere Hits Record High Despite Pandemic Dip

New York Times: Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere Hits Record High Despite Pandemic Dip. Global emissions dropped last year, but the decline wasn’t nearly enough to halt the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The amount of carbon dioxide piling up in Earth’s atmosphere set a record last month, once again reaching the highest levels in human history despite a temporary dip in the burning of fossil fuels worldwide caused by the coronavirus pandemic, scientists said Monday.

Scientific instruments atop the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii showed that levels of carbon dioxide in the air averaged 419 parts per million in May, the annual peak, according to two separate analyses from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Those readings are about half a percent higher than the previous high of 417 parts per million, set in May 2020. Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas driving global warming and researchers have estimated that there hasn’t been this much of it in the atmosphere for millions of years.

Yale Climate Connection, June 4, 2021

Articles include: A climate-change-inspired video road-trip across the U.S.; Key readings on IEA’s ‘Net Zero by 2050’ report; Tips: How to weatherize your home; Talking climate with those holding different worldviews; New Mexico imposes strict rule to prevent venting, flaring of natural gas; Can fossil-fuel-dependent Wyoming build a more diverse economy?; Swiss utilities used a simple tactic to get customers to buy renewable energy; Foresters use fire and goats to care for Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest; Youth-led Sunrise Movement calls for national job guarantee

Yale Climate Connection, May 28, 2021

Articles include: Marine photographer captures haunting images of California’s beautiful, but vanishing, kelp forests; Ambitious action on climate change could be Biden’s ‘moon shot’; It’s been a record-long time since the last EF5 tornado. What does that mean?; 12 reports on what the U.S. may make possible on climate; To help address the climate problem, universities must rethink the tenure and promotion system; Dominican Catholic sisters help create climate-friendly investment funds; Ninety-five percent of bull kelp forests have vanished from 200-mile stretch of California coast; Denmark plans to build a massive wind-energy hub on artificial island in the North Sea; Installing solar panels over California’s canals could save 65 billion gallons of water a year; Outer Banks communities see beach renourishment projects as a lifeline.

Study: NYTimes Climate Fwd June 2, 2021

Articles include: Making way for wildlife; Biden suspends drilling in the Arctic Refuge; imagining life after highways; methane emitters; where solar & wind power are needed; Study: heat deaths & climate change; Trump denial; airlines & GHGs; Norwegian environmental base.

Report: Here Are America’s Top Methane Emitters. Some Will Surprise You.

New York Times: Here Are America’s Top Methane Emitters. Some Will Surprise You. Oil and gas giants are selling off their most-polluting operations to small private companies. Most manage to escape public scrutiny.

As the world’s oil and gas giants face increasing pressure to reduce their fossil fuel emissions, small, privately held drilling companies are becoming the country’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, often by buying up the industry’s high-polluting assets.

According to a new analysis of the latest emissions data disclosed to the Environmental Protection Agency, five of the industry’s top ten emitters of methane, a particularly potent planet-warming gas, are little-known oil and gas producers, some backed by obscure investment firms, whose environmental footprints are wildly large relative to their production.

Study: Greenhouse Emissions Are Messing With the Stratosphere

Mother Jones: Greenhouse Emissions Are Messing With the Stratosphere, a New Study Reveals. It raises the worrisome question of atmospheric effects yet to be discovered.

Humanity’s enormous emissions of greenhouse gases are shrinking the stratosphere, a new study has revealed.

The thickness of the atmospheric layer has contracted by 400 meters since the 1980s, the researchers found and will thin by about another kilometer by 2080 without major cuts in emissions. The changes have the potential to affect satellite operations, the GPS navigation system and radio communications.

The discovery is the latest to show the profound impact of humans on the planet. In April, scientists showed that the climate crisis had shifted the Earth’s axis as the massive melting of glaciers redistributes weight around the globe.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, reached its conclusions using the small set of satellite observations taken since the 1980s in combination with multiple climate models, which included the complex chemical interactions that occur in the atmosphere.

Studies: NY Times Climate FWD: May 5, 2021

Articles include: Washington moves to cut greenhouse gases; A deadly combination: Extreme heat and power failures; People of color face more pollution. This study was still a surprise; Study: Emissions Cuts Could Drop the Impact of Melting Ice on Oceans by Half; and more.

Report: China’s greenhouse gas emissions – 2 articles

Washington Post: Chinese greenhouse gas emissions now larger than those of developed countries combined. China now accounts for 27 percent of global emissions, while the U.S. accounts for 11 percent. China’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 surpassed those of the United States and the developed world combined, according to an analysis published Thursday by the research firm Rhodium Group. China’s share of global emissions rose to 27 percent of the world’s total, while the United States remained the second-largest emitter at 11 percent. India’s share came third at 6.6 percent, edging out the 27 nations in the European Union, which accounted for 6.4 percent, the report found.

Bloomberg: China’s Emissions Now Exceed All the Developed World’s Combined.

  • China spewed 27% of global greenhouse gases in 2019: Rhodium
  • OECD’s cumulative emissions since 1750 far outweigh China’s

China now accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions than all of the world’s developed nations combined, according to new research from Rhodium Group.

The Senate just took a step toward actually lowering US greenhouse gas emissions. 

Vox: The Senate just took a step toward actually lowering US greenhouse gas emissions. Why the Senate’s move to reverse Trump’s deregulation of methane molecules is so critical, and where the resolution goes next.

The Senate on Wednesday took an important step forward on limiting emissions — and meeting its commitments to curb global warming — by voting to limit the unbridled release of methane molecules, often a byproduct of natural gas production, into the atmosphere.

The 52-42 vote reinstates the Oil and Natural Gas New Source Performance Standards, a handful of Obama-era regulations on methane emissions rolled back by former President Donald Trump in August 2020. The measure drew support from every Senate Democrat, as well as Republican Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), who has opposed GOP efforts to deregulate methane emissions in the past; Lindsey Graham (R-SC); and Rob Portman (R-OH). The rule is expected to be taken up and passed by the House of Representatives in May.